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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
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Daily News Editorial Board

Editorial: Republicans in Tennessee and Arizona were wrong to kick out elected legislators they disagreed with

Everyone knows that the foolish ruling Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives expelled two freshmen Democrats, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, on some specious charges on April 6, a partisan move that backfired when both men were promptly reinstated. But just six days later, the foolish ruling Republicans in the Arizona House of Representatives did the same thing to freshman Republican Liz Harris, ejecting her.

Let’s hope this wrongful expulsion wave doesn’t spread to the 48 other states.

Some of the particulars are different: The two Justins were charged with “disorderly behavior” for correctly advocating for action on guns after three kids and three adults were shot dead at a Nashville school not far from the Tennessee State Capitol. Out West, Harris is a much less sympathetic case. She is a crackpot election denier, who invited an even kookier conspiracy theorist to a legislative hearing in February. At that hearing, the invited nut foamed against everyone, including the Democratic governor, the GOP House speaker, judges and others as being tied in with the Mexican drug cartels and the Mormon Church and you get the idea.

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